Days after the successful operation to capture dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, the US is evaluating a new military intervention. This time, aimed at Iran.
President Donald Trump received a range of options from the Pentagon to act in the Persian country amid a brutal repression by the current regime, which has left more than two thousand people dead in protests in recent weeks, according to official data and reports from human rights observers.
The alternatives presented to the Republican leader involve the use of lethal and non-lethal force. These are aerial bombings aimed at military targets, financial actions against the country and its allies to further suffocate its economy and cyber attacks against sensitive infrastructure.
Military experts and former US government officials explained to the Financial Times that these targets could include Iranian military and Revolutionary Guard infrastructure, command and control centers, as well as weapons and supply depots used by the regime and its militias.
These actions may even involve targeted attacks on the highest levels of the Iranian regime. In his first term (2017-2021), Trump authorized an operation – which was successful – to eliminate Revolutionary Guard commander Qassem Soleimani, an action that raised tensions between the two countries.
The American president also signaled, in June last year during the American air strikes on Iranian soil, that he could target Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, despite having rejected that this would be his objective at the time.
The US has already announced a first measure this Monday with the imposition of 25% tariffs on any country that does business with Iran. Brazil is one of the regime’s partners that may be affected by the new charge.
This Tuesday, Trump raised the tone on the situation in Iran, saying in a message on Truth Social that “help” was on the way, a sign that military operations could be the next step in containing repression by authoritarian leaders. The death toll of 2,000, the thousands of political prisoners and the internet blocking signal that the hostile response to the waves of protests should not be interrupted.
Although Trump receives support from part of his political base, such as Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, to launch military strikes in Iran, other White House advisors assess that this may not be the option with the best result.
An American official told the The New York Times on condition of anonymity that more narrow options, such as a cyberattack or an attack on Iran’s internal security apparatus, which is using lethal force against protesters, are more likely to happen at first.
Dialogue between the American government and the ayatollah regime seemed like an alternative until this Monday, according to the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, in a press conference. At the time, she said that air strikes were “one of the many options that are on the table”, but that “diplomacy is always the first option for the president”.
However, Trump appears to have given up on that possibility this Tuesday when he announced the suspension of all diplomatic channels with Tehran, while encouraging Iranians to take to the streets and “take control of the institutions” while “help was on the way.”
Protesters organized protests on the streets of several Iranian cities motivated by the deterioration of the national economy. Opposition movements quickly joined the actions inside and outside Iran and protests gained momentum, challenging authoritarian religious leaders.
Inside Iran, the peak of the protests was reached on the 8th, after at least 96 demonstrations in 27 of the country’s 31 provinces were registered by the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), an Iranian human rights monitoring organization based in the USA. The large mobilization led the Tehran regime to cut off access to the internet, fearing the spread of demonstrations internally and externally. The blackout remains in effect, while the US evaluates providing access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network.
